Interviewed by Aaron Levy.
Since many students will be voting for the first time, what would you describe as the role of municipal politics?
Municipal politics is the government that has the most effect on the individual, and the decisions that are made by the municipal politicians directly effect you in most cases. Municipal politics, you’re supposed to provide good roads, water, sewer, and the odd rec centre, and some playing fields, but it’s much more than that. Because you can make decisions that cost huge amounts of money and perhaps not the student, but mom and dad on their tax bill, they suffer greatly, and that’s a huge issue for the community as a whole. So it’s probably the most effective on the community.
And how would you describe the mayor’s role?
The role of the mayor is that they are the CEO of the community. That makes the bottom line the responsibility of the mayor. The mayor is, I view my role as being a governor; we need to make policy that staff can live and work with. The mayor’s role is largely a PR role, you’re meeting development people, local sports people, it’s the whole gamut, you name it, everyone would like a half hour with the mayor, and that is a huge component. And solving issues for the little guy who’s not familiar with the municipal system, the mayor’s office always has to be open so we can sit down and explain those issues. The mayor is also at every community event, you’re the face of the community in essence.
Who do you view as your constituents?
The tax payers of the District of Mission. The community at large elected me to do a good job for the District of Mission, so my constituents are generally speaking, the tax payer. That’s who I’m accountable to and who I’m working for.
How will you receive the views of the entire population instead of just those most active around City Hall?
That’s a difficult and ongoing process. We have a manager of community relations, and it’s a relatively new position with the District of Mission, but that person’s job is to be pro-active and go out and get details from everyone, and we’re getting better at that. The mayor’s job is to be active in the community, and you’ll find me walking up to people and saying, “Hi, how are you doing?” That’s the most effective way of finding out what some of the issues are, to get out on the beaten track and talk to people, that’s a serious issue. There are those that are always at City Hall and always have an issue, but the general citizen doesn’t have a lot of communication with us and that’s why it’s important to get out and talk to people.
Are you doing anything to address the lack of student interest in local politics?
Directly, I would say we do a poor job getting involved with students in local politics. I do a lot with elementary schools, I go and talk to elementary school kids, teachers are always welcome to make an appointment with me and myself and two staff members will go and we talk to kids. We haven’t done it to people who vote, university students. When voting time comes around, you want to talk to everybody and get people out to vote, whether they vote for me or someone else, it’s important that you vote. We have an advertising program that’s trying to encourage people to go out and vote, but I don’t believe we’ve done a good job of encouraging students that are voting age. We can do a better job on social media I think, and we could do a better job if we were able to come in and talk to students. To me the experience of being able to go in and talk to students and get some feedback, that’s really what we should be doing.
How did what you were doing at city council change over the past three years compared to what your initial goals were during the last campaign?
I was elected [as one of] seven people, and our mandate was for change, and we delivered what our mandate was. Our mandate isn’t finished yet, we need to complete the process. We came in with the idea that we needed to recreate City Hall. We did a core service review, and we really did recreate City Hall to be more efficient. That process is still underway. The person who was the city manager, chief administrative officer of the district, retired after 25 years, so he was with us for the first 6 months and then we hired a new CAO, that’s my only employee. The city manager works for the mayor and council, everyone else in the district works for the CAO. There’s not only been a re-organizational change, but a philosophical change, because one guy’s been there for 25 years, a new guy comes in, there’s a difference, right, that’s human nature, that’s the way folks are.
So I don’t see changing what I’m doing in terms of my philosophy to bring down taxes and pay down debt. Our biggest project is the redevelopment of our downtown, and that’s an ongoing thing that will be going on long after I’m gone. Assuming I’m re-elected for another four years, I see that as a 15 year project to come to fruition and really be successful. And we have taken on the job of redistributing where we’re spending money. The biggest issue for many communities in this country is aging infrastructure and replacing it without a debt burden. For instance when you come and buy a home, you can’t afford to buy a home because of the debt burden. We have a program now that we believe will be successful in order to replace infrastructure without having to borrow huge sums of money 10-15 years from now, and I would like to continue doing that.
Do you have a specific project you want to prioritize or bylaw you want to change?
Restructuring, looking after debt, looking after taxes, and downtown revitalization. Those were the four things we really ran on in 2011, and those are the things we concentrated on. There were other things that come forward with developments and that kinda thing, but the primary issues that we ran on, we stuck to, and are currently in the process of delivering. From that point of view we stuck to our guns on the issues that we ran on.
We eliminated 60 per cent of our debt in five years. There was a massive savings program to accomplish that. Cities borrow money from the municipal finance authority, and it’s a 20 year term. And the Municipal Finance Authority will allow you to pay down without penalty at year 10. So there has been over a period of time a certain amount of money set aside so that in year 10we can pay off our debt. We are in a stage of three-four payments — the end of this year we will have no water debt, no sewer debt, and will have gone from $19 million and a bit to just a little under $6 million, which I would like to eliminate over the next four years. When you eliminate the principal and interest payment, we’ve probably freed up a $1000 a day in principal and interest payments that we have to spend that we didn’t before. And we’re not asking the tax payer for an extra $1000 a day, we’ve just made a decision that that money’s freed up by paying down the debt.
What kind of communication will you try to have with the police department?
We have RCMP, not a private department like Abbotsford. I have a good relationship with the RCMP. We received a new superintendent, our previous superintendent retired. Ted De Jager started a month ago. It’s a get-to-know-you kind of thing. I’ve always had a good relationship with the RCMP. We are a phone call away or an email, that’s not an issue.
What would you change about the way the city currently uses its agricultural and urban spaces?
In fairness to the province, they usually don’t come in and interfere with municipal affairs. There’s a separation between federal, provincial, and municipal responsibilities, so you don’t really have the province coming in and interfering with municipal responsibilities. Clearly the provincial government can make decisions that the general folk don’t like, and you can lobby on behalf of them, but generally speaking it’s not just one municipality lobbying that gets anything done.
The development community, if they come in and they want want to put together a development, there’s a process, and part of that process is a public hearing. And if you do your job properly and you go into a public hearing, you actually listen to what the people are saying to you, and that is the most effective way of making sure that what the developer wants and what the public wants are equal.
What would you change about the way the city currently uses its agricultural and urban spaces?
Downtown is a pet project for us. We don’t have the agricultural land that Abbotsford does. The City of Abbotsford has huge tracts of agricultural land. The bit of agricultural land we do have we need to preserve and look after, but it isn’t an impact of our community that we’re particularly concerned about. We would like it used for agriculture, but it’s not an issue like it is [in Abbotsford].
We are constantly working on trail systems in our community. We have about 150 km of walking trail, both in the city core, and we have a huge municipal forest as well. We’re one of the few communities that actually has a forestry department — we selectively log our forest, and as we’re doing that we’re also creating trails for eventually, hopefully, lots of tourists to come and enjoy. Through our official community plan we’ve designated areas that we specifically want to have open space with, and will continue to do that.
Many people do not vote because they say they never see real positive change started at a local government level. How do you address that without resorting to unrealistic promises?
At this time of the year the tradition is you get unrealistic promises. I think that people should always vote, and educate themselves about what the real issues are. We, and I can only speak for myself and what I’ve done in the last three years, I made four promises that were major, and I kept them. We want to continue with that type of a thing. I’m not a big spender, I never will be. I happen to believe our economy hasn’t been in very good shape since 2008, and it’s ebb and flow in the community. Abbotsford and Mission, if you go to Statistics Canada, have the lowest combined income in Canada. So if you have a husband and wife who both work, the average income is a little over $66,000/year. So we would like to pride ourselves on being super great communities, and we are. Abbotsford’s got some great things, but we don’t have incomes on the average that can afford a lot. We have to be very careful about what we are asking our taxpayers for. Because a lot of people are living hand to mouth, and they can’t afford extravagant issues or promises, and I don’t make a lot of extravagant promises, but the ones I do make, I keep.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
